In a briefing to the Pentagon from Baghdad on Wednesday, Army Col. Steve Warren said that prior to the attack, “the enemy was able to very covertly assemble enough force, which included the several truck bombs, some bulldozers, and of course their infantry” which was estimated by the Kurds to number more than 400 fighters.
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Defense Secretary Ash Carter said Wednesday that the fight against the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) is “far from over”, a fact he said was highlighted by the recent death of a Navy SEAL in Northern Iraq. He’d also been to Afghanistan once.
Keating was one of more than 4,000 US servicemen in Iraq to advise local forces and conduct special operations against ISIS.
The fighting continued for two more hours between USA and Peshmerga forces and ISIS fighters before Keating was hit about 9:32 AM Warren would not disclose how long it took the QRF force to enter the fight.
Another was killed in October 2015 during an operation on a Daesh prison in northern Iraq where U.S. Special Forces accompanied Peshmerga to rescue 70 Iraqi hostages.
USA forces then withdrew, according to Kurdish fighters involved in the battle, leaving an armoured Toyota Landcruiser by the side of the road, its tyres flat. “They are really good fighters”.
“When the fire erupted, the quick reaction force… came to the battle and provided the additional firepower” needed to “extract the remainder of our personnel”, Warren said in a video call to Pentagon reporters.
About 60 IS fighters died, and the peshmerga forces went on a counterattack and recaptured Tal Asquf by the end of the day.
Petty Officer Keating was a grandson of Arizona financier Charles H Keating Jnr and grew up in Phoenix, where he was a star distance runner in high school.
Keating, who enlisted in the Navy in 2007, died from wounds suffered in combat during an attack by Islamic State forces on his unit.
The 31-year-old was the grandnephew of former Cincinnati Enquirer publisher and namesake of the St. Xavier High School natatorium, William Keating.
“And I just want to be clear that this young man found himself in combat and sacrificed for this campaign’s success accordingly… we need to understand that there is that risk in what we’re doing, but there – there would be greater risk not to engage in this campaign and defeat this enemy”.
Warren explained that whenever USA personnel are being sent closer to the battle lines to support the Kurdish or Iraqi Arab forces, a QRF is assembled nearby in case the advisers are threatened. “The Peshmerga have regained control of Tal Asqaf”.
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“[But] my experience with the Chairman [of the Joint Chiefs of Staff] has been that when we go to the President with something that we know will accelerate the progress there he has approved those things – and that has been true in both Iraq and Syria”.
